Man in his late 60s gunned down 6:15 p.m. Tuesday; sources link him to Raynald Desjardins, ex-right-hand man of Vito Rizzuto

The victim — a man in his late 60s — was gunned down Tuesday about 6:15 p.m., near the intersection of Jean Tavernier and Pierre Gaulin Sts., close to Felix Leclerc Park. That’s several blocks south of where the Metropolitan Expressway intersects with Langelier Blvd.

Photograph by: Phil Carpenter
, Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL — The latest casualty of underworld violence and Montreal’s 5th homicide victim of 2013 was a relative of Raynald Desjardins — a former right-hand man to reputed Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto — who is now in prison facing charges of slaying a rival mobster.

Two suspects are being held by Montreal police after a fatal gangland-style shooting in the city’s northeast Mercier district during Tuesday’s supper hour.

Questioning of the pair continued late Wednesday afternoon, Constable Daniel Lacoursière said.

A police source confirmed to The Gazette that the victim was Gaétan Gosselin, believed to be in his late 60s.

Gosselin was getting out of his car when he was approached and shot in the upper body at about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Jean Tavernier and Pierre Gaulin Sts., close to Félix Leclerc Park.

Neighbours heard the shots and called 911.

The man was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

According to La Presse, Gosselin was related to Desjardins through marriage in the past. If so, Gosselin would be the second person related to Desjardins to be killed since November.

On Nov. 4, Joseph Di Maulo, 70, who was married to Desjardins’s sister at the time, was killed in front of his home in Blainville.

Gosselin listed his residence at a building close to where he was shot. According to land registry records, the building was recently owned by Desjardins until he sold it to his daughter, in 2012, months after he was arrested in the death of Salvatore Montagna.

During the summer of 2011, a few police sources told The Gazette that Desjardins, Di Maulo and a few other men were part of a group that tried to reach a consensus over who should take control of the Mafia in Montreal before Rizzuto’s sentence in a U.S. prison on racketeering charges expired in October 2012. The group was believed to include Montagna at some point but they apparently had a falling out by September 2011, when someone tried to murder Desjardins in Laval.

Montagna was gunned down on the banks of a river in broad daylight in 2011 a short time later.

Di Maulo was well known to police for decades as an influential figure in the Mafia in Montreal. By contrast, Gosselin did not have a criminal record and police sources interviewed by The Gazette on Wednesday knew little about him.

Last fall, Desjardins fought but failed to quash a witness subpoena served on him by the Charbonneau Commission, ordering him to testify.Desjardins is expected to take the stand there soon – under penalty of obstruction charges if he refuses.

According to the Quebec business registry, Gosselin is listed as the president of a numbered company that is the primary shareholder in Société Internationale Carboneutre Inc., a construction company that Desjardins was also tied to before his arrest. Domenico Arcuri, a man linked to several companies that were firebombed last year, is listed as the president of Société Internationale Carboneutre.

The suspects in the shooting of Gosselin, age 34 and 29, were arrested shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday when “both tried to leave the premises” of a building on Brunet Ave. in Montreal North, said Montreal police Constable Yannick Ouimet.

“Investigators will first complete their examination of the crime scene,” Ouimet explained Wednesday morning, with “a good deal of work (that) remains to be done.”

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The victim — a man in his late 60s — was gunned down Tuesday about 6:15 p.m., near the intersection of Jean Tavernier and Pierre Gaulin Sts., close to Felix Leclerc Park. That’s several blocks south of where the Metropolitan Expressway intersects with Langelier Blvd.

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